I'm really sick of the reorg of my house to be the only thing I have to write about, mostly because if I'm still writing about it, it must not be finished.

I made good progress on my office yesterday, although it wouldn't look like it to someone who doesn't live here. Part of a successful reorg is making decisions about where to put everything. The thing is, nothing can be put away like a puzzle, because if you take it out and then have to put it away and it's complicated, it won't get put away, i.e. take box from front of cabinet, set aside, pick up stack of items from top of other box, set aside, remove target box, open lid, get item, put everything back, use item, item sits on desk until the energy is renewed enough to replace it.

The new desk has a ton more storage than I originally realized and it's been fun deciding where everything should go. I have had more "duh" moments while sorting things, like we don't still own all the equipment that all those user manuals would indicate. And user manuals can be sorted into categories like TVs/DVD players/VCRs, Large appliances, small appliances, etc. to make them fit better into file folders rather than have them stuffed all together in a bin. It's also easier to find them when you need them.

I also don't need computer software from the 90s that doesn't even play on Windows 7.

The thing is, I knew all this, but hadn't taken the time to sort through stuff, because as many of us know, if you have the space for the bin or drawer or cabinet, you'll use it. I've already eliminated two small bins full of stuff and put them into one small file drawer. I feel so accomplished.

Then I went into MY's (from here on out, my oldest, middle and youngest daughters as a group will be referred to as O MY! and O, M or Y individually or MY when it's the middle and youngest) room to see what they'd accomplished.... they were watching TV, still, after having gotten up at 1:00pm. Seriously? It was around 6:00pm.

Why is it I need to be on top of them to get this done? M has to go to her other home today for a babysitting job and house sitting for her parents and their room and my house need to be completely finished by the time we move her in next week so we aren't just stacking her stuff around the house while it waits for placement [my voice is getting shrill by the end of this sentence].

"We need dad to hang those two shelving units before we can continue."

"Two shelving units? Two shelving units are not going to solve all your problems, dear girls."

I took them into the room and pointed out all the spaces they could occupy with the standing shelving units we already own. I know Y did a massive sloughing of belongings as she moved out of her old room, but she still has a lot of stuff to place; books mainly (before you get too excited about how she must be well read with all those books, they are mostly comics in book form, from anime to Marvel, with a few classics sprinkled in from school and the recommendation of friends).

"What a good idea!" they exclaimed after I informed them I wouldn't be buying designer, hanging book shelf thingys when we already have standing book shelves they can make due with sprinkled around the house. Where's their vision? Where's their imagination.

So they finally dug in. And I think (I'm using that noncommittal verb, because I went to bed while they were still working and haven't seen it yet), they may have gotten a handle on all the debris in the room because they were sweeping as I headed to bed. Now all they need to do is hunt for the rest of her belongings which are sprinkled throughout the house. When dad gets home from Yakima on Sunday or after work on Monday, he can hang those shelves that will complete the transformation of Pooh Corner to MY's hang out.

Now, for O's room. She's got a bad cold or something and hasn't been worth my breath to yell at her. When she's sick, she's good for nothing. I get that, or rather, I have to accept it. As one who rarely gets ill, I tend to not have patience for those who do and their recovery time. I just have to shut up and try not to make it worse by meddling in their woes. Also, when I'm ill I notice everyone still expects me to manage all my motherly/wifely duties.

Her room situation is different. Her room is ready to go and she just needs to place the rest of her things and probably do some major sloughing off of her own. Then she needs to get a job.

It's almost done, it's almost done,Toto [as I click my ruby red slippers together; not to be confused with the Big Red Chair].

Well, in spite of my continued barrage of announcing the temperature in Yakima this weekend, my husband is still going. He will go alone. At least he'll take the RV because I've already paid for the RV site. Normally he wouldn't feel it's worth it for just him and would just thrown a pup tent in the back of his '55 and bachelor the whole weekend. Bwahahahaha! It was all part of my evil plan.

I really did think I'd be joining him this weekend. With our new RV I thought I'd brave 90 something degree temps and just stay inside during the daytime heat. But triple digits is far too much for me to even fathom. God Speed to my husband on his travels this weekend. I think he's got a handle on taking care of himself by staying out of direct sun and drinking lots of water, but it wouldn't surprise me if he came home early either.

I told him I'd miss him this week/weekend, then recanted the sentiment. I have far too much to do to miss him. My new office (I haven't quite reconciled whether it's Pooh Corner or not - although the Pooh paraphernalia has survived the cut as of this writing) is promising as I've connected all the cables that needed connecting, they are stashed in a semi-organized manner, the WiFi is working, the internet is working, the TV is working and in theory the printer is working, although I have yet to try it.

I had my husband move my large file cabinet in and install the cabinet for my Pooh tchotchkes. I really didn't think I had the room for either of them, but after spending some time in there, I decided to make room. I can always change my mind, I suppose (which would be to my husband's dismay).

My goal for the rest of the week and weekend is to have everything in the house settled by the time my husband gets home on Sunday. This will require the complete cooperation of the children living in the house. The oldest is not feeling well and seems to be fighting a cold or bad allergies. I sent her to bed last night with some allergy meds, hoping a good night's sleep in her own bed (she'd been displaced by our company this past week) will have her raring to settle her bedroom today.

As I've moved furniture around in my office, I've been mentally placing all my things and rearranging my middle and youngest daughter's new space too. I've had epiphanies that seem more like "Duh" moments (why buy a metal bed frame for my middle daughter when we have the futon frame we were going to sell?).

The short of it, things are happening and the light is shining more brightly than it has all week. The bulk of the furniture has been moved, with just a few things to get from my middle daughter's house and a bit more sorting out to do on my part to find them closet space in Pooh Corner (referring to their new space - I'm just not sure yet what everything will be called - your room, office, Pooh Corner?).

I'm sure there will be additional "Duh" moments in my future as we settle the rest of the homestead. Stay tuned.

The hardest part of this whole reorganization was accomplished yesterday - reconnecting the internet, WiFi and TV cable in their new locations. I hate that part. The cable guy came out and although he did the job, he could have made it more aesthetically pleasing on the outside. I wish I would have caught that before he was in so deep.

Then last night, as I was juggling cables and feeling defeated, I remembered the time years ago when I despaired that I couldn't look out a window while I was working because the cable connection was across the room. My husband declared we just needed a longer cable; I fell in love with him all over again that day.

So with that in mind, I headed to Office Depot for a longer cable. And as with many things in life, when we stop and consider them, it's not as bad as it seems and I only needed one cable. I also picked up a couple surge protectors with flat plugs (why aren't they just all that way?).

Even though my office is still trashed, the house is still a wreck and the kids' new room is not ready for complete occupation yet, I feel accomplished and free to spend quality time today with my Florida Friend on her last full day here. She needs to commune with the forest before she heads back to the heat of the south, so we will go on a short hike.

The kids have been enjoying time with her daughter in a way only kids these days do - movies, video games and this year, of course, painting. They've had fun even if they haven't seen the sun.

As I've been struggling reorganizing the inside, my friend's been rearranging the outside. She's been taking clippings to sprout new plants, moving plants around to better suit their needs or fill in where they are more needed. At least one thing will be settled by the time she leaves tomorrow.

My goal, after they are gone, is to settle my office, the house and push the girls to finish organizing my daughter so we can move her friend in. I would like it all complete by the time my sister visits on the 6th and so I can have a yard sale on the 7th.

I was going to go to a car show with my husband in Yakima this weekend, but with a prediction of 102-104 degrees, I'm out.

His pleas of "it's a dry heat" and "it cools down at night" are lost on me as I just think it's plain crazy if you don't have to. He'll probably go, but at least he'll take the RV because I already paid for a space for it; instead of the usual years when he's gone without me - just a tent in the back of his street rod. It's just crazy, I tell ya. He just can't fathom missing it.

It's day seven of the journey. The crew are getting restless to get it over with (okay, I am), but the ship seems to have stalled. This has reminded me that although it's okay to delegate, there is still a need for a Captain on the ship. Sigh.

We have finished the swabbing and white washing of the deck, but our quarters have not yet been settled. However, there was light at the end of the tunnel when a large piece of furniture was finally stowed below. Although we continue to weave our way through many more pieces of furniture, bags and boxes of personal items and unknown objects, there is hope all items will find their place by the end of the week.

We might have to lighten our load and throw some things overboard. There may even be enough for a dock sale when we pull into port. It could recoup some cash we've spent on extra provisions to make it through this extended journey.

The first mate is the muscle of the group, but insists on also working for cash on land rather than just room and board, with which the rest of the crew seems satisfied. This takes extra time as he has to take the dinghy out and back. Fortunately, part of our journey was over a weekend and he was able to get most of the heavy lifting accomplished before he launched this morning.

Besides the O MY! team, we've temporarily added two more to the crew to make up for the 1st Mate's absence. They have proved invaluable as extra labor, procurer of produce and chef.

I continue to be optimistic we will complete our journey on time even though my crew is tired and parties all night giving us a late start every day.

Every night this week before I go to bed I've been making sure the kitchen is clean and I throw a load of towels into the washing machine. It's the only thing keeping me sane with all the commotion going on.

There are signs of progress coupled with moments of distress that the chaos will never be over. However, the kids have been amazing and have done much of the work on their own. I've been very impressed, while also realizing that this project would not be this far along if it wasn't for the efforts of my new middle daughter.

She's quite the hard worker, very self-motivated (granted this is all so she can move in with us, but still, compared to my own children; hmmm?), and is able to and does make raw food into edible food for herself and my biological children. She doesn't open the fridge and think, "There's nothing to eat." She opens the fridge and sees potential. So she's not only been the chief motivator for this huge reorganization project, but also my daughters' personal chef.

She's also very considerate and was concerned about me losing Pooh Corner and thought I was upset. I wasn't. I've always thought I would someday move my office space back to its original origin. But I was thinking perhaps this would be the end of "Pooh Corner;" perhaps it was time I grew up and let it go.

My middle and youngest daughter were determined I should have a Pooh Corner and surprised me by setting up all my Pooh paraphernalia in the room; even hanging pictures. It can and will be Pooh Corner again, I believe. The struggle now is the realization of how much organizing and sorting I have to do to make it my office and how to fit all the furniture in.

I've been having fun shopping Craigslist and have already procured an awesome desk, now I'm seeking an awesome sofa bed, as the futon is too large to fit in the space, no matter how much measuring I do. Best laid plans, I suppose. Now I've got a line on a really cool one. So we'll see how that pans out, but if it doesn't, it is one I can buy new.

There's nothing like smashing your organizational fantasies about yourself by down sizing. However, one can always get better organized anyway and it was probably time for a good clean out.

As I was contemplating my middle daughter's entry into our lives amidst the chaos, I see how well she'll fit in with our family and friends. Maybe my kids will pick up a thing or two. I don't know if my excitement of the moment is because she's moving in, because I get to procure new furniture, or because this project is getting very close to the end. Probably a combination and you know how I love a good household shake up.

I was also thinking about our new addition's status as the middle daughter, being a few months older than my youngest and thinking, "Now I have an Oldest, Middle, and Youngest."

O MY! (see what I did there?)

I have a permanent O MY! I can refer to this cluster of girls as my O MY! moments.

Okay, around about now I'm feeling like I'm vying for an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive. However, it's a process and one thing has to make room for the other and it gets worse before it gets better. At least that's what keeps me sleeping at night.

The reality for my youngest is that she is currently homeless. She has no bedroom or a place to put her stuff. Her clean clothes are still in the laundry basket I folded them into. My oldest daughter's "new" bedroom is complete and my friend is staying in that while she's here. All the kids are camping in Pooh Corner (which they love) and the journey goes on.

My middle daughter has worked so hard to make this all happen, that I feel the need to finish painting my office just so she doesn't have to (all the kids are currently passed out because who knows how late they stayed up). Once the new office is painted (I'm not sure if it will become the new Pooh Corner or not), I can move stuff into it which will free up Pooh Corner to move my youngest daughter's stuff into it so they can then paint it and start setting it up as their (my youngest and middle daughters) new living quarters.

To top it all off, I procured a huge office desk for my new office (committing to one large piece of furniture often makes the space much cleaner). Now not only is the inside of the house in chaos, so is the outside. Now it just looks like I'm hoarding furniture. It's not just that desk, it's the furniture from my oldest daughter's apartment.

It's a lot and it feels like it will never be done. But with one room down and another room on it's way, there is a tiny light at the end of the tunnel.

I have company coming from out of town for a week tonight. At 6:34 to be exact. I mention this because it's my way to start a big project right before I'm going to have company.

One year I was going to have Thanksgiving at my house and I decided to remodel my daughter's bedroom. It didn't seem like a problem at the time, it's just a little room; I don't entertain in her room. What I didn't anticipate was that when you paint a room, you have to put all the stuff from the room somewhere.

Everything was piled in the living room and dining room. Right where one entertains. I ended up having to move the holiday to my girlfriend's house who lived nearby.

Another Thanksgiving I decided to remodel the whole family room the weekend before. I just canceled it that year. Fortunately, it was just going to be the four of us in the family and my mother. No in-laws or anyone else. The weather was really bad that year anyway and my mother didn't want to come out. Turned out really good for me, though.There were several snow days and my kids were available to help all week. Bwahahahaha - "Let me teach you how to remove wallpaper, children!"

But here I am again. About to have company for a week and the house is in total shambles. I have not learned my lesson. My house has been just the way I want it for some time now, which means it must be time to shake things up a bit.

My youngest daughter's best friend is moving in with us. She's been having a rough time at home, so I've agreed to let her living with us her last year of school. I'll be helping her figure out what she needs to finish school and what she needs to do to get into college.

The bedrooms in my house are rather small, so I gave the girls Pooh Corner. Pooh Corner is the computer/craft/guest room and is the largest room in the house, so it only makes sense to just move both the girls into the room as a shared space.

And if you remember, my oldest daughter also moved home last week. She hadn't even finished blending her stuff from her apartment back into the household when all this went down. Her bedroom is the biggest of the girls' small bedrooms, so I decided I had to take it in order to have enough room for a computer/craft/guest room.

My daughter was not happy about being kicked out of her room into her sister's old bedroom. When I agreed to let her paint it, she got excited about having a fresh start. I wasn't sure how it would all go down and what the timing of it would be, but then the young lady (who will be referred to as my middle daughter) who's moving in unexpectedly had some time to come help with some reorganizing.

When we all sat down and talked about how to make it work, my middle daughter said, "Let's do it."

Okay then. Let's. So here's the timing of it all: Empty my youngest daughter's room, paint, move my older daughter's stuff into it, move my office/craft stuff into my older daughter's room, paint Pooh Corner, move the rest of the debris in the house (because hopefully by then what's left is all my youngest daughter's stuff - kind of like that extra screw you have left after building Ikea furniture), move my middle daughter's stuff in.

When it's all over today, there should be a place for everyone to sleep. Although I told my friend she may be bunking with my husband and me.

The girls were motivated and stayed up late last night to paint my oldest daughter's new room. I was going to leave my oldest daughter's room the way it is, blue paint with clouds, a wall with a large tree on it. But now, after observing my oldest daughter's new room, I'm kind of jealous. I'd like to paint the new computer/craft/guest room.

My older daughter liked my youngest daughter's former paint job, but thought of is as her sister's "room." She wanted to make it her own. Now that all this is so real, I'm feeling the same way about my oldest daughter's room. At least about the blue walls and clouds. Blue is not my color and I think I would sit there typing away and think about it being her room.

I wonder what the kids would think if I woke them up and said, "Okay, we're painting another room before we can continue." They'd probably think I'm cracked, but hey, we're in it this far, may as well go all the way. I'll even use whatever leftover paint we have from other projects. That will make my husband happy.

Of course I want to take this further, I'm having company in 8 hours and 34 minutes.

It seems to be a thing now that my oldest has moved back home. My daughters and I end up in the kitchen as we're getting ready for bed (okay, I'm getting ready for bed, they are getting their second wind and fueling up for it) and hilarity ensues.

My husband is usually in bed by then, being the only person who has to get up at O dark hundred and may or may not hear the acme of the laughter depending on how long he's been asleep. He can sleep through anything.

It usually starts innocently enough. Some innocuous comment turns into a comical misunderstanding, then skews its way towards sarcasm, which ends in an explosion of hilarity. Even at their ages, my daughters continue to surprise me with their observations and make me laugh.

I wish I could remember all the crazy things they say that take me by surprise and make me laugh out loud. I think their sole goal is to make me laugh hard enough that I'll wheeze, start crying and have to take my glasses off (although after writing that it makes it sound like they're trying to kill me).

Last night I was kissing my daughters good night. My youngest hates to kiss anyone and when pressured she goes in with her lips folded into her face. She claims she dislikes the idea of swapping spit with people, which is strange coming from the child who always drinks my water from the straw I use. You'd think at least kissing me wouldn't bother her.

But being a parent who never forced my young children to hug or kiss anyone they didn't want to, sending her the message that it was her body and up to her to chose what she was comfortable with, I've adjusted. We have an understanding now, so we chin bump.

I know it sound strange, but it's our thing. Don't you all go thinking you can chin bump my youngest, though. She informed me you must be qualified as it takes precision, skill and a special bond to chin bump. She just can't do it with anyone. You'll have to be happy with an awkward kiss (you know who you are).

Anyway, I was tired last night as I was saying goodnight to my daughters. I hugged and chin bumped my youngest, then went into my older daughter's room to kiss and hug her goodnight. I had a momentary lapse when I went in for the kiss, "Is it a kiss or chin bump?" I couldn't remember, so I took my cues from my oldest. Kiss. It was a kiss.

It happened in a split second and took me a few minutes to realize I even had a lapse. It was long enough that I was back in the kitchen with my oldest right behind me. I told her about it and she said, "Like an awkward first kiss."

It made me burst into a roar of laughter because could you even imagine that? On a first date and wondering whether you should kiss or just chin bump? What a horrible thought to have yet another intimate moment to consider in those awkward first moments of a relationship.

I told my youngest about it and she said, "Maybe that's what dad planned to do on your first date when you gave him the cheek instead of your lips."

By now I'm wheezing. "Yeah, he went in for the chin bump. I turned my face away to avoid lip contact and he had only a split second to think, 'Abort mission, abort mission, stick out the lips for a softer impact!'"

The glasses come off and I'm wiping the tears from my eyes. After those raucous sessions, it takes me awhile to recover enough to go to bed. Good thing I read before I go to sleep.

For the past two weeks, I have only been home for four days. Needless to say I have not tried any new recipes as we've been on the road camping and to car shows. I'm not a particularly experimental camper when it comes to food.

I have even joined the ranks of "one of those campers who think they're camping but really aren't" when I discovered last week I need electricity while camping. I have a CPAP machine because I have sleep apnea. We decided to try a new state park before the car show we attended last week. Mind you, I chose that park on purpose, knowing it did not have electricity. What's a couple nights without the CPAP after all the years I went without one?

I woke up several times during the first night to visit the commode; reminiscent of the days before my CPAP when I got up 8 to 10 times a night. Oh yeah. When I wake up I have to go to the bathroom. So if sleep apnea keeps waking me, I'll have to keep going to the bathroom.

Our first journey out in our new RV back over Memorial weekend we didn't have electricity and it didn't seem like a big deal even though I didn't sleep particularly well that night. I just figured it was because of the new RV and the excitement of it all. However, I got very little sleep last week at Scenic Beach State Park, not to mention the splitting headache I woke up with.

Fortunately, we had seen the things that Scenic Beach is probably popular for - uh, the view, it is called Scenic Beach; even a little hike. So the next morning I googled to see if Sequim Bay State Park had any available spots (with electricity. They had only one; not available to book online, only in person. We raced there and my husband fought off the lady whose husband drove up a few minutes behind. He stopped at the office and let her jump out so she could beat us out of that one spot.

Okay, my hubby just told her we took it and they stormed off in search of another last minute site somewhere else. But my youngest daughter did tell me she was proud of him, "Good job you guys, ASSERT YOUR DOMINANCE! He can man up when he needs to find shelter for his wife."

Scenic Beach was gorgeous and the campground was so quiet and amazing, I was really sorry to leave it. But I am not the backwoods camper I was when I was a teen backpacking and sleeping on the ground for three days in the mountains behind our house. Heck, I'm not even the 20 something who toured Europe on a Eurail pass with backpack, staying in youth hostels with toilets literally being a hole in the floor (co-ed no less).

No. Give me an RV with electrical hookup and a Visa card for traveling Europe and I'm good to go.

Anyway, in lieu of not trying any new recipes this week, I'm going to post a new cake recipe my Cooking Buddy and I have tried a couple times now. It's a Dr. Pepper cake and it's so delicious and moist. We've also tried it with root beer with amazing results.

As many of you already know, my youngest daughter got her braces off yesterday. It's been a long 26 months for her, but success at last!

She's like a new born discovering how things really feel in a mouth without hardware. In her honor I made steak and corn on the cob last night. After she ate she said, "Has steak always been that easy to chew?" HA! It wasn't even a particularly tender steak.

Her parting gift from the orthodontist (mind you, it's the orthodontist, not her dentist) was a bag full of chewy candy: a full-size Snickers, a full-size Butterfinger, Laughy Taffy, Jolly Ranchers and Sweet Tarts. Now if we can only motivate my oldest to wear her rubber bands so she can get through it in the next year and half.

One of my oldest daughter's friends had braces in junior high and high school and it really changed her face; taking her from child to woman. I used to look at her little face and it reminded me of a cute little monkey (not in a bad way). Once she got her braces off, she lost the monkey in her. She's a gorgeous, young woman now.

I look at my youngest and of course she's matured these last couple years, but I don't think the braces changed the structure of her face. She's thrilled to have all her teeth coming together and being able to chew from both sides (who wouldn't be?). Perhaps whatever needed to be done to my daughter's teeth wasn't as structurally changing as that of my older daughter's friend.

Milestones come in all shapes and sizes and we celebrate each in different ways. On the way home I bought her a sandwich from Subway so she could enjoy not having bread stuck in the hardware for the next several hours (the gift that kept on giving).

Upon our arrival home, I told her to do the dishes she was supposed to have done the night before. Congratulation baby girl!